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ADDIL^S 



OF 




Mr. Ltris (I^Abrera 




Published by 

LATIN-AMERICAN NEW:^ ASSOCIATION 

1400 Broadway, Ney( York City 



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Address of Mr. Luis Cabrera 



11 

Whatever I might say in token of gratitude, for the honor 
conferred upon us by The American Academy of Political and 
Social Science an3 The Pennsylvania Arbitration and Peace 
Society, would be little, in view of the great importance of the 
special invitation extended to us to attend this extra session of 
the Academy. 

We consider this session a high honor for our country more 
so than for ourselves, and we are glad of the opportunity to 
make ourselves heard before a scientific and scholarly audience, 
free from prejudice and interest towards the Mexican situation. 
Owing to their special nature, The American Academy of Politi- 
cal and Social Science, as well as the Pennsylvania Arbitration 
and Peace Society is an institution of scientific and humanitarian 
character, having at heart only the sole logical investigation and 
the good of humanity, and in that spirit proceeds to study the 
Mexican situation. 

The literature on Mexico which I have found in the United 
States is of an entirely superficial character, such as is contained 
in reports or interviews of a newspaper. Consequently, it is 
tinged with shallowness, based on rumors, and intended for 
telagraphic transmission. In many cases those reports have poll- 

3 



tical tendency and then thrt facts are not only inaccurate, but 
brought forth with the intention of moulding public opinion, or 
that of the United States Government, or that of some political 
party. 

In many other cases the literature of Mexico known in the 
United States, is simply imaginative, ranking from the novel 
down to the moving picture exhibition. 

I do not know of any book, pamphlet or publication on the 
Mexican situation which has been made with a scientific pur- 
pose. 

The sources of information have been either newspaper cor- 
respondents who discard 99% of important facts because they 
cannot extract therefrom a sensational headline for their paper, 
or foreigners having interests in Mexico, and who view the coun- 
try's situation merely from the viewpoint of their own business. 
Other founts of information come either from Mexicans who 
reside abroad, and whose views are affected by partisan bias, or 
by politicians representing some special faction or chieftain. 

All such founts must necessarily be unreliable. Not one of 
them springs from the purpose of ascertaining what are the true 
conditions of Mexico, and the public who reads them desires 
to find therein the corroboration of its own opinions rather than 
precise data. 

The mission which has brought us to the United States being 
of a diplomatic nature, prevents us from speaking with absolute 
liberty, and our connection with the Constitutionalist Govern- 
ment migth cause our opinions to be viewed as decidedly partial. 
As regards myself, without losing sight of the fact that I belong 
to the Government of Mr. Carranza and I am taking part in a 
diplomatic commission, I would like to say some words on the 
Mexican situation, appraising it from a purely scientific view- 
point. 

Therefore I shall not speak either as an official or a politician 
or a diplomat, but only as a member of The American Academy 
of Political and Social Science who desires to present the gen- 
eral features of a scientific interpretation of the facts which have 
been agitating Mexico during the past six years. 



THE CHAOS 

The general impression regarding the Mexican situation, not 
only abroad but in Mexico, is that it is but chaos. 



I 
The causes put forth by each Gc^vernment, each chief, each 
conspirator, each politician or eacH writer, as motives of the 
Mexican Revolution, are so numerous and conflicting that it is 
almost impossible to understand them. Some are general, others 
concrete, others immediate;, and others remote. 

The simplest conclusi^Dn which indolent intelligences or im- 
patient characters have extracted from this galaxy of motives, 
is that the Mexican people have an incorrigible tendency towards 
disorder and war, and is consequently the "sick man," whose 
cure is hopeless. 

The number of presidents that Mexico has had in a century, 
is nearly as large as the number of leaders, generals or chief- 
tains who in the past six years have assumed the title of legiti- 
mate Governments of Mexico. 

All possible forms of administration have tried to rule Mexico, 
ranking from brutally military governments, without organiza- 
tion of any kind, such as those of the Zapata or Villa, up to a 
Government of Democratic appearance, but headless, as that pro- 
ceeding from the Aguascalientes Convention. 

Foreign countries only know of Mexico what they see in the 
press headlines, and those are a tissue of bloody deeds, battles, 
assaults, blowing up of trains, massacres, shootings, imprison- 
ments, exiles, etc. 

Judging from this kind of information, the situation of Mex- 
ico is a complete chaos. Neither the American people, nor the 
men who might be supposed to appraise the situation, can do so 
through lack of general lines of interpretation of those facts. 

The student or the scientist who would like to understand and 
follow step by step the phenomena produced in the chemist's 
^lass, or in the receptacle of bacteriological cultures, or in the 
crucible of the metallurgist; or the botanist who would like to 
follow the development of the seed or of the grass minutely, 
would find himself guideless to do so. Neither chemical, 
biological, nor sociological phenomena can be studied through 
direct observation of the elements at the time in which processes 
of transformation are taking place. It becomes necessary to 
know the nature of those elements, to observe the previous con- 
dition of the same, and subsequently the phenomena materialized 
therewith. 

To understand sociological phenomena, we need above all a 
general interpretation of a whole series of facts developed and 



of the evolving process ; notj a concrete explanation of each one 
of the facts as they take pla^e. 

I shall endeavor to make a sc^kntific interpretation of the Mexi- 
can situation. 

GEOGRAPHICAL DATA 

Geographically, Mexico is a high triangular plateau, having its 
vertex towards the South and its base towards the North, com- 
prised between two mountain chains, of which one runs parallel 
to the Gulf and the other to the Pacific Ocean. 

This high plateau is dry and bare in its Northern part, and 
has been chiefly devoted to cattle raisings. In the Southern 
part it is less dry and more fertile, and this Southern portion, 
properly called central plateau, is the cereal region. 

The Gulf slope, damp and hot,\is rich for tropical agriculture 
and gifted with extensive oil fields. The Pacific slope, dry and 
hot, but well irrigated by our mountains, will become an im- 
portant agricultural region. 

Yucatan, a stony desert, which has only been able to produce 
hemp, is the main body of Mexico, like Lower California. 

The mountain chains running parallel to the Gulf and to the 
Pacific, and which interlock in order to form the high Central 
Plateau, are not merely spurs, but comprising vast regions, con- 
stitute the extensive mountain portion of Mexico, and are the 
mining region. 

For a long time Mexico was considered to be a country of 
marvelous wealth. Afterwards it was believed that Mexico, on 
the contrary, was a very poor country. The truth is that Mexico 
possesses great wealth, unexploited, and needing large invest- 
ments of capital and exceeding energy and skill to develop it. 

POPULATION 

From the point of view of population, Mexico is as little 
known, as from the Geographical. 

One speaks of the Mexican people and of the characteristics 
of such people, without taking into consideration that the Mexi- 
can people, or the Mexican race is not a well defined element, 
but an agglomeration which has been constantly changing dur- 



ing the past four hundred years, and is still in way of forma- 
tion. Before the Spanish conquest, hundreds of indigenous races 
existed, of such distinct and opposite characteristics, that it would 
be difficult to find another country in the world possessing such 
a number of different races. 

It is for facility's sake that we speak of the "Mexican Indian," 
instead of speaking of the hundred of indigenous races of 
Mexico. 

After the Spanish conquest the indigenous population became 
enslaved. Later through the efforts of the Spanish friars to 
protect the aborigene races of Mexico, the Indians ceased being 
slavies, to fall into a condition of legal incapacity. 

Subsequent to the Conquest, a mixed or mestizos population 
began to be, and it is still continuing and modifying its develop- 
ment day by day. 

In Mexico there is not a mixed population, properly speaking, 
with characteristics different from those of the Indian, or dif- 
ferent from those of the white. We have a varying mixed popu- 
lation, which in certain strata are very near to the Indian, and 
in others cknnot be discerned from the white. 

For the rest, the case with which whites mix with mestizos, 
and the latter with Indians, produces the fact that in Mexico 
the race question properly speaking does not exist. There is 
meriply a question of education, for as soon as the Indian has 
been educated, he actually takes his rank by the side of the 
mestizos. 

The population problem consists in unifying the mixed race 
by means of education and intercrossing with' the Indian race, 
stiiving to secure the constant dissolving of the immigrant 
white races into the m^ed race. 

This problem does not present difficulties as regards the in- 
tercrossing of the Indian race with the mixed race, but it is 
very serious as regards dissolving the white immigrants. The 
white immigration of Mexico as regards numbers, can be clas- 
sified in the following order: Spanish, North American, French, 
Italians, English and Germans. 

Of the white immigrants to, Mexico the Spaniard nearly al- 
ways blends with the native, so that after a generation it may 
be said that all the Spaniards become Mexicans. We may say 
the same thing of the Italian and immigrants of Semitic origin: 



Arabians, Armenians, etc. After the Spaniards and the Italian, 
the German assimilates best, and becomes Mexican in two gen- 
erations. The German frequently marries a Mexican woman 
and settles permanently in the country. French comes after 
the German, as regarding facility of blending. 

The American immigrant very seldom becomes Mexican. 
The very small percentage of American immigrants who settle 
permanently in Mexico or who marry Mexican women, pre- 
serve American citizenship, educate their children abroad, and 
it may be said that ninety-five per cent, of American immigrants 
remain always American, socially, politically, and ethically. 

The English immigrant rarely becomes Mexican. Hardly 
ever does he marry a Mexican woman and his children are 
always educated abroad. 

These brief explanations respecting -the tendencies to assimi- 
late the white population, reveal also many political and eco- 
nomical questions which exist in Mexico regarding the situation 
of foreigners. 

EDUCATION 

The lack of education of the indigenous population, is the 
only obstacle to dissolve the Indian population into the mixed 
one. 

Mexico has a problem of education. It will suffice to say that 
there are 80% of illiterate in our country. 

Education in Mexico has had many obstacles. The principal 
ones have been the landlord system, which has created the 
peon class, in truth serfs to do the work, and the action of the 
Roman Catholic Church during the nineteenth century, which 
has assisted landlordism to preserve ignorance in the indigenous 
masses. 

The activities of the Spanish friars in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth century, and of the Catholic clergy in general dur- 
ing those centuries, may be said to have been constantly bene- 
ficial for the indigenous race. However, when the clergy ac- 
quired vast wealth and the Church became the great land owner, 
then the beneficial work of the Catholic Church for the educa- 
tion of the indigenous races of Mexico and the Mexican rural 
population in general, ceased to exist and there began a counter- 

8 



movement. The tendency of the Church then was directed to 
maintain the rural population in ignorance. 

The previous Governments, either were not aware of the prob- 
lem or did not wish to educate the Indian and the proletariat. 
The best proof of the failure of the Catholic Church as an edu- 
cator of the Indians, is that after the Church has had four hun- 
dred years of absolute dominion in educational matters, we still 
have 80% of illiterates in Mexico. 

The tendency of the Revolutionary Government is, not only 
to remove the obstacles that the Mexican Government might 
have, but to devote a considerable portion of its efforts and of 
the public funds to the education of the masses of the people. 



RELIGIOUS PROBLEM 

Properly speaking, Mexict) has no religious problem. The 
Spanish system of patronage which was extended to the Catho- 
lic Church by the Spanish kings, gave an almighty temporal 
power to the clergy, which lasted up to 1860. In this year owing 
to the War of Reform, the Church was dispossessed of its prop- 
erty, incapacitated to acquire real estate, and deprived of tem- 
poral power. 

During the long Government of General Diaz, the Catholic 
clergy creeping on from point to point, in concealed form, re- 
covered much of its temporal power and rebuilt part of its 
fortune. At present some members of the Catholic clergy have 
a tendency to recover the temporal power which the Church had 
enjoyed previous to 1860. The tendency of the Revolutionary 
Government is to render effective the absolute separation of 
Church from State, and to prevent the Mexican clergy from 
recovering its temporal power, leaving it, however, in the most 
absolute liberty as regards religious matters. 



AGRARIAN PROBLEM 

The Agrarian Problem of Mexico depends on the geographical 
and ethnical conditions of the country. 

The Spanish colonial system of huge land grants, the con- 
stant absorption of real estate by the clergy during the eigh- 
teenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, the 



system of concession of Government lands adopted during the 
second half of the nineteenth century, created and continued a 
state of landlordism which has been the chief cause of the unrest 
in Mexico during the nineteenth century. 

As a consequence of this landlordism, there has been'produced 
a constant condition of serfdom among the rural classes of Mex- 
ico, known as peonage. The Agrarian Problem of Mexico con- 
sists in the destruction of landlordism to facilitate the forma- 
tion of small farms, as also to effect the granting of "commons" 
to the villages. The Agrarian Problem includes the division 
or parcelling of large estates, and a system of taxes upon rural 
property to prevent the reconstruction of large estates. Up-to-date 
it may be said that large rural estates have practically never 
paid taxes. 

NATURAL RESOURCES 

The lack of Mexican capital has been the reason that mining 
and other Mexican industries have not been developed save 
through foreign capital. 

The Spanish Government believed that the economical devel- 
opment of Mexico should be based on land monopoly, and also 
on commercial privileges granted to Spaniards born in the 
motlier country. 

In the exploitation of the natural wealth of Mexico, the sys- 
tem followed by the past administration, and especially by that 
of General Diaz, was of granting concessions so intrenched in 
privilege, that further competition become impossible. This sys- 
tem of privileges and monopoly, comprised not only the min- 
ing, petroleum and water power industries, but all kinds of in- 
dustries and manufactures, commerce and banking. It may be 
said that in general the economic development of Mexico during 
the administration of General Diaz, was the development of big 
business based on privilege. 

The general tendency of the Revolutionary Government of 
Mexico, is to obtain an economic development based on un- 
shackled competition, and of such a nature that the develop- 
ment of existing business may not prevent future commerce 
;»"d industry. 

From this point of view, foreign capital, invested in Mexico 
upon the system of privilege, considers itself attacked by the 

10 



present revolution. However, if we understand the general 
tendency of the Mexican Revolution, we find that it opens a 
field of action for the investment of foreign capital much wider 
than that existing heretofore. 

COMMERCIAL PROBLEM 

The lack of fluvial navigation and the great height of the 
Central Plateau above the sea level, the uneven topography, 
have compelled Mexico to rely upon a scant system of railways. 
Due to this, Mexico's commerce has been effected on false bases. 
It has been simply importation and exportation with foreig-n 
countries, without developing domestic interchange of products. 
Commerce 'itself has been to a great extent, the only fount of 
fiscal revenue, principally, the commerce of importation. For a 
long time exports and even raw materials have been free from 
duty. 

The tendency of the Revolutionary Government consists in 
controlling the railways, these being the only ways of com- 
munication that the country has. It purposes also to develop 
other ways by utilizing the forces which lie latent in Mexico : 
oil and water power. * 

INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM 

The industrial development of Mexico dates from the last 
twenty years. Its basis has been artificial. It has consisted 
of an excessive protection to infant industry, rendering them 
uncertain and precarious, owing to lacl< of mercantile bases, 
and they have prevented the establishment of competing in- 
dustries. 

The tendency of the Revolutionary Government is to place the 
industrial development of the country upon a business basis, 
leaving aside the system of protection, concession, privileges, 
and monopoly, which has been until now the bases of what 
little development- has been effected. 

POLITICAL PROBLEM 

The diversity of type of civilization of the Indian, the mestizo 
and the white, constitutes in Mexico a serious social and politi- 
cal problem which may be set forth by saying that it is nece,'?- 

■ 11 



sary to find a formula of Government which may serve at the 
same time for a type of medieval civilization as is the mestizo, 
and for a type of modern civilization, as is the foreign immigrant 
or the educated Creole. If this is not possible, it would be neces- 
sary to find various governmental formulas and various regimes 
for each one of the elements forming Mexico's population. 

Up to the time of General Diaz, the political laws of Mexico 
have, been based on advanced theories, but these have never 
been rendered effective. This produced inequality, juridic and 
economical. The political problem of Mexico consists in ren- 
dering effective the political and civil law. In order to do this 
it is necessary above all to find the legal and political formulas, 
so that after these laws have been promulgated, it may be pos- 
sible to apply them efficaciously, thus securing equality of rights 
among all men. 



INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS 

The international problems of Mexico deserve special atten- 
tion. 

The main political international problem of Mexico consists 
in her relations with the United States. 

After the 1847 war, which cost Mexico half of her territory, 
Mexicans have not been able to regain confidence in regard 
to the imperialistic tendency that the Latin-American countries 
attribute to the United States. During the Mexican revolu- 
tion, after the occupation of Vera Cruz and the Columbus ex- 
pedition, the fears of Mexicans of a conflict with the United 
States have increased considerably, chiefly since it is known 
that one of the political parties of the United States frankly 
advocates intervention. 

The repeated and public statements of no intervention made 
by the Democratic Government of the United States, have not 
been sufficient to allay the fears of Mexicans. 

As a neighbor of the United States, Mexico will also have as 
an international problem the danger of a conflict between the 
United States and some other European or Asiatic power. The 
foes of the United States, who are always foes of the whole 
American Continent, will certainly assume to be friends of Mex- 
ico, and will try to take advantage of any sort of resentment, 

12 



feeling or distrust that Mexico may have against United 
States. ~ 

Mexico, nevertheless, understands that in case of a conflict 
between the United States and any other nation outside of 
America, her attitude must be one of complete Continental 
solidarity. 

From this viewpoint, the Revolutionary Government has fol- 
lowed a policy of frankness and consistency in her relations with 
the United States, always putting her deeds in accordance with 
her words, and sincerely trying to reach an understanding with 
the people and the Government of the United States. 

Within Mexico, the real international problem means the pro- 
tection of foreign life and property and the condition of for- 
eigners in regard to natives. On account of the non-enforce- 
ment of the political and civil laws in favor of Mexicans, and on 
account of the always watchful diplomatic protection that for- 
eigners have enjoyed, a sort of privileged condition has arisen 
little by little in favor of foreigners. Mexico has the problem 
of equalizing the condition of Mexicans and foreigners, not by 
lowering foreigners, but by raising the condition of natives. 

The privileged condition of foreigners that has existed in Mex- 
ico for a long time, has produced a certain jealousy and distrust 
with which Mexicans look upon the increase of immigration 
and foreign investments in Mexico, since such increase would 
be considered as the strengthening of a privileged class. 

The problem for Mexico is to find the way in which foreign 
money and immigrants can freely come to Mexico and contribute 
to her progress without becoming a privileged class, that is to 
say, that instead of becoming a growing menace to the sover- 
eignty of Mexico, they will contribute to the consolidation of 
her sovereignty and independence as a nation. 

All the problems heretofore stated have always been complex 
and greatly misunderstood. 

The old regime had created such interests and those interests 
were so strongly bound with the Government, that during the 
last years of the Government of General Diaz it was quite clear 
that no peaceful solution was attainable. The transformation 
of the whole system by congressional action trying to change 
the laws and the Government at large, as well as the economical 
conditions of the country, would have Required probably a whole 

13 



century of efforts, and still it is not sure that such solution would 
be reached or that in the meantime civil war would not have 
broken out. 

After the election of General Diaz in 1910, it was well under- 
stood that the purpose of such election was to perpetuate the 
same form of Government and the same system as had been 
followed. The people saw that it was impossible to transform 
anything by peaceful methods. 

The Mexican people then had to resort to force in order to 
destroy a regime which was contrary to its liberty, develop- 
ment and welfare. 

The last six years of internal upheaval of a chaotic appear- 
ance, mean for Mexico a process of sociological transformation 
of her people. 

The scientific interpretation of the Mexican Revolution is not 
possible, unless facts are taken as a whole and a considerable 
period of time is analyzed. All oj us know that matters of ut- 
most irhportance are analyzed and studied and conclusions are 
drawn from incomplete facts in every day reading newspapers 
of the United States, which is the only way in which it is impos- 
sible to draw sane conclusions from facts. 

I have never seen a country, either in Europe or in South 
America, where conclusions are drawn or editorials are written 
save after a reasonable time has justified the drawing of such 
conclusions. But in the United States the rush of public curi- 
osity for facts is misunderstood as an eager curiosity for ideas, 
and so this is the only country in the world where we can see 
that an editorial comes the same morning in which a mere 
rumor on some subject is published. 

This way of studying sociological facts, sounds to me like an 
attempt of a Physics student who studies the swing of the 
pendulum, instead of waiting that the whole swing is complete 
and that a certain number of swings have occurred, would be 
in such eagerness of finding scientific conclusions of any of the 
positions of the pendulum and would take any moment of the 
swing proceeding to calculate the exact direction in which the 
center of the earth is placed. The conclusion of that student 
would be that the earth is mad and that its center is changing 
foolishly. 4 « 

It has been said that the Mexican Revolution is not properly 
a revolution, but rftere anarchy ; that countries at peace consider 

14 



dangerous and intolerable. Nevertheless, if we can demon- 
strate with facts that the Mexican Revolution has followed ex- 
actly the natural course of any other revolution, and if it can 
be demonstrated that even at the present time the Revolution- 
ary Government of Mexico is pursuing a well defined program 
of reconstruction, one must necessarily reach the conclusion 
that the Mexican people are not acting madly, nor blindly 
destroying her wealth and her men, but performing a task of 
transformation beneficial and indispensable, from which results 
are expected that will reward the sacrifices that are now being 
made. 

It will appear indeed as strange and bold, and it will per- 
haps shock to a certain extent, especially the members of the 
American Academy of Political and Social Science and of the 
Pennsylvania Arbitration and Peace Society, that in a scientific 
and pacifist audience like this, some one cqmes to make the 
apology of force and insurrection as a means of securing the 
liberty and welfare of her people. 

T am not trying to impose my views, but simply applying 
sociological criterion to facts that have occurred in Mexico. 

When a system of work is right, but we fail to obtain results 
from our efforts for lack of efficiency, the task of the reformer 
consists in improving that system. But when a system is radi- 
cally wrong, we must abandon that system and find a better 
one. 

The gradual and slow reform of a system to make it suit the 
requirements of a man, of a business enterprise, of an institution 
or of a country, is called evolution. The abandonment of a sys- 
tem to be replaced by another, is called a revolution. 

The use of force is not essential to a revolution ; but the revo- 
lution in the personal conduct of men, in business or in com- 
munities, implies always a considerable effort and a great 
amount of sacrifice. 

Historically, we can assert that with very few exceptions, the 
greatest conquests of human liberty and human welfare have 
not been made without large sacrifices of men and property. 

In sociology, the revolution is the rebellion of a people against 
a social system that has been found wrong. But as every social 
system is embodied in certain laws and in a certain political' 
organization, revolution appears always as a violation of ex- 

15 , , 



isting laws and as an insurrection against the Government. 
Hence all revolutions appear as anarchical attempts to destroy 
society and this is also why most insurrections are called revo- 
lutions. 

A revolution means the use of force to destroy an unsatis- 
factory system and the employment of force and intelligence to 
build the new system. 

A revolution has consequently two clearly defined stages, the 
destructive, nearly always a period of war, and rebellion against 
the so-called established Government, and the stage of disa- 
vowal of most of the existing laws, which means the use of 
force against the social, economic and legal system. 

When the old regime has been destroyed, the mere re-estab- 
lishment of legal order without any change, would be tantamount 
to the simple reconstruction of the same structure already de- 
stroyed. This is what sometimes makes revolutions fail. To 
avoid this, any revolution has a second stage, that is always 
known as the period of revolutionary government. During this 
second period, force is also employed in the form of a dictatorial 
Government, to establish the required reforms, that is to say, 
to lay the foundations of the new social economic and political 
structure. After every revolution, a period of dictatorial in- 
terregnum has always followed, because revolutionary dictator- 
ship means the use of force for reconstruction. 

When the foundations of reconstructions have been laid down, 
then it is possible to return to a legal regime no longer based 
upon the old legislation nor upon the obsolete system but upon 
new principles that become the new legal system, that is to say, 
the new regime. 

The French Revolution has been the most complete example 
of a revolution, with its frankly destructive period, its anarchic 
state, its revolutionary government and its new regime upon 
which France afterwards developed, and we also can say upon 
which the rest of Europe has subsequently developed. 

The Mexican Revolution was nothing more than the insur- 
rection of the Mexican people against a very repressive and 
wealthy regime represented by the Government of General Diaz, 
and against a social, political and economic system supporting 
such a Government. 

Said revolution had as its prodromes the political insurrection 
of Madero. But Madero saw no more than the political side of 

16 



the Mexican situation. He professed that a change of Govern- 
ment was sufficient to bring about a change in the general con- 
ditions of the country. Madero compromised with the Diaz 
regime and acquiesced in taking charge of his Government, and 
ruled the country with the same laws, same proceedings and 
even with the same men with whom General Diaz had ruled. 
The logical consequence was that Madero had to fail because 
he had not destroyed the old nor attempted to rebuild a new 
regime. 

The assassination of Madero and the dictatorship of Huerta 
were mere attempts at reaction made by the old regime with its 
same men, its same money and its same proceedings, and at- 
tempting to re-establish exactly the same old conditions that 
existed under General Diaz. 

The Constitutionalist Revolution set forth its line of con- 
duct from the very beginning. The Plan of Guadalupe issued 
by Mr. Carranza in March 1913, immediately after the assassina- 
tion of Madero, is the straightest revolutionary proclamation 
that could be imagined to destroy an old regime. Said plan 
meant the absolute disavowal of the Executive, Legislative and 
Judicial Powers that had existed up to that time, and authorized 
the use of force for the destruction of Huerta's Government, 
which was being supported by General Diaz' army, by the 
power of the land owner and by the moral influence of the 
Catholic clergy. 

A period of blood followed, and when Huerta was finally de- 
feated and the Chief of the Constitutionalist Revolution reached 
the City of Mexico, it was believed that the destructive period 
of the Mexican Revolution was at an end. But a period of an 
extremely chaotic and anarchic character necessarily followed. 

At the end of 1914 the Mexican situation was most puzzling 
and bewildering, and still it was at that very moment and in the 
middle of such an extreme confusion, that Don Venustiano Car- 
ranza, as the Chief of the Constitutionalist Revolution, set forth 
the general outlines upon which the reconstruction of Mexico 
was to be carried out. 

Said outlines are embodied in the decree of December 12th, 
1914, which I will quote here as the best interpretation of the 
basic lines upon which the new regime anil the new social sys- 
tem were to be found. 

17 i 



Said decree in substance indicates that whereas the use of 
force had been required to overthrow the Huerta Government 
and in view of the chaotic conditions of the country, it was 
necessary to use the same force to continue the struggle until 
peace should be attained, and to reconstruct the new regime. 

The main provisions of said decree read as follows : 

"Art. 1. The Plan of Guadalupe of the 26th of March, 1913 
shall rema:in in force until the complete triumph of the Revo- 
lution. Consequently, Citizen Venustiano Carranza will con- 
tinue as First Chief of the Constitutionalist Revolution and in 
Charge of the Executive Power of the Nation, until such time 
as the enemy is vanquished and peace is restored. 

"Art. 2. The First Chief of the Revolution, in Charge of the 
Executive Power, will issue and put in force during the struggle 
all such laws, regulations and measures that may satisfy the 
economic, social and political requirements of the country, carry- 
ing out such reforms as public opinion may require to establish 
a regime to guarantee the equality among all Mexicans, to wit : 
Agrarian laws that may facilitate the creation of small -property, 
parcelling the large estates and restoring to the villages the 
commons of which they were unjustly dispossessed; fiscal laws 
tending to reach an equitable system of taxation upon real 
estate ; legislation to better the condition of rural laborers, work- 
ing men, miners and in general of all the proletariat; establish- 
ment of municipal liberty as a constitutional institution ; basis 
for a new system of organization of the army ; reform of the 
electoral system to obtain actual suffrage ; organization of an 
independent judicial power both in the Federation and the 
States ; revision of laws relating to marriage and civil status 
of persons ; regulations that will guarantee the strict enforce- 
ment of the Reform Laws; revision of the civil, criminal and 
commercial codes ; reformation of judicial proceedings for the 
purpose of obtaining a rapid and efficient administration of 
justice; revision of laws relative to the exploitation of mines, 
oil, waters, forests and other natural resources of the country 
in order to destroy monopolies created by the old* regime and 
to avoid the formation of new monopolies in the future ; political 
reforms that may guarantee the real enforcement of the Con- 
stitution of the Republic, and in general of such other laws 
as may be considered necessary to ensure to the inhabitants of 
the country the real and full enjoyment of their rights and 
equality before the law. 

18 
' 16 



"Art. 4. At the triumph of the Revolution, when the Su- 
preme Power be reinstated in the City of Mexico and after 
municipal elections take place in most of the States of the 
Republic, the First Chief of the Revolution, in Charge of the 
Executive Power, will call elections for the Federal Congress 
fixing the proclamation, the dates and conditions in which said 
elections must take place. 

"Art. 5. When the national Congress assembles, the First 
Chief of the Revolution will report to it concerning his steward- 
ship of the power vested upon him by this decree, and he will 
especially submit the reforms issued and put in force during the 
struggle, so that Congress may ratify, amend or supplement them, 
and raise to the rank of constitutional provisions such laws as 
may have to^ take that character; all before the establishment 
of constitutional order." 

The reading of this decre£ is of utmost importance to all 
who seem to be confused by events developing in Mexico since 
the overthrow of Huerta, and to those who only see in Mexico 
an incomprehensible condition of anarchy. 

It will be of still greater importance to know that this de- 
cree has been the rule under which the construction of Mexico 
is being made by the Revolutionary Government. 

Students of the Revolution of Mexico from a disinterested 
and scientific point of view, should keep in mind, as lines of 
interpretation of events occurred during the last six years, the 
following points, which might be at the same time a sort of in- 
dex to the chapters for a most extended study of the Mexican 
situation : I. Causes of the Mexican Revolution as deriving 
from the political and economic development of the country 
up to the end of the nineteenth century ; II. Prodromes of 
the Mexican Revolution until the death of Madero; III . De- 
struction of the political and military powers of the old regime, 
until August, 1914; IV. Destruction of the eponomic power of 
the old regime during the preconstitutional period (1915-1916) ; 
V. Beginning of the reconstruction. 

, . Such has been the development of the M-exican Revolution, 
and such is the interpretation of past, present and future oc- 
currences in regard to this Revolution. 

Such has to be the interpretation, rerardless of who are the 
men in the Government. v 

19 ;^ • 



If Carranza and the men around him are personally over- 
powered by the new anarchic period, and if they have to die or 
get out, that would not mean that my conclusions were wrong. 
It would only mean that a man is not always a span between 
two regimes. There have been cases in which a revolution has 
been completed during the life of a man, be he Cromwell or 
Washington. Some other times a long list of heroes and 
martyi-s is required to complete a transformation of the people, 
from Mirabeau to Napoleon. 

In Mexico we have had three revolutions. Our revolution of 
Independence in 1810, was not carried out by a single man. 
Hidalgo initiated it and died without seeing the end. Morelos 
continued and also passed away before our country was free. 
Guerrero was the only one who saw the consummation of our 
independence. 

In 1857 it only took Juarez to see the beginning and the end 
of the Reform Revolution. 

The present Revolution has already consumed Madero. If 
Carranza does not see the end of this movement, that will not 
change the development of the revolution. It will only mean 
that Carranza himself and the men around him are no more than 
a link in the chain of men who will sacrifice their lives for the 
liberty and the welfare of the Mexican people. 

To close my remarks I wish to reiterate my apologies to the 
audience, and especially to the members of the American Acad- 
emy of Political and Social Science and of the Pennsylvania 
Arbitration and Peace Society, for the theme I have chosen for 
this conference. 

I sincerely believe that the people of this country need to 
study the Mexican Revolution, not only for the sake of their 
interest toward Mexico, nor for their own interest alone as our 
neighbors, but also as an example of an economic and social 
revolution that is taking place in the twentieth century. 

I wish a great prosperity and a long peace to this country, 
and that the solution of all its problems be made by peaceful 
methods. Nations nevertheless, when they make mistakes in 
their development, have to make a revolutron. If such a revo- 
lution can be made without alteration of peace, the unnecessary 
evils of a revolution can be avoided and all the benefit that a 
revolution necessaril}'- brings about will be reaped. 

20 



10 



Bernard Shaw says that revolution is a national institution in 
England, because the English people, through democratic pro- 
ceedings, can make a revolution every seven years, if they 
choose to do so. The Anglo-Saxon referendum is no more than 
a right to peaceful revolution. 

The Mexican people do not enjoy that blessing, and have 
been obliged to engage in a bloody and costly revolution to 
attain their liberty and welfare. There is a reason. 

A revolution is not only a source of evil and tears, just as fire 
does not always produce devastation. Unexplored wildernesses 
of the Temperate Zone can be open to agriculture by exploiting 
the forest wealth and at the same time preparing the soil for 
future cultivation. 

In tropical countries, however, the common way of opening 
fields to cultivation is to clear them with a great fire that con- 
sumes much natural wealth indeed, but which at the same time 
rapidly devours the jungle and by purifying and fertilizing the 
soil, saves a great amount of work. 



21 



/ 



/ 



Kindly Rettirn Cats To 

LATIN-AMERICAN NEWS ASSOCIATION 

1400 Broadway, New York 



)WARDS SINGLE TAX IN MEXICO 



By M. C. ROLLAND, Civil Engineer 



e all passions, above all the ap- 
y personal strug-gles, above all 
jblems so difficult to explain to 
nerican public, rises, from the 
n Revolution, an ideal which is 
more clearly defined, a strong- 
cy towards the conquest of the 
lie welfare of that people, inter- 
r the necessity of establishing- 
imate communion between the 
r and the soil, of doing- away 
he unjust manner in which the 
have lived under the feudal tax 



occasion to develop his administrative 
labors with perfect tranquility. 

The great problem of the Land was 
attacked there with surprising energy, 
and the author of this article was ap- 
pointed to organize the Agrarian Com- 
mission and that of the Property 
Census, in order to distribute land 
among the Indians and to carry out 
the re-valuation of the properties in 
the State, so as to impose a just tax. 

An advanced law was passed relative 
to lands, under which the men who 



at $32,000,000.00. After carrying into 
effect a rough appraisement, the valu- 
ation amounted to $231,000,000.00 and at 
present the State of Yucat5.n is receiv- 
ing about $3,000,000.00 revenue. This 
means that it has been possible to 
raise from the shoulders of the needy 
a large part of the load burden under 
which they were staggering, which xi- 
mo.st rru.ghed them and which merely 
permitted them to starve. 

A similar occurrence has taken place 
at present throughout Mexico in al- 




Oomniisston headed by Engineer Modesto C. Rolland, appointed by General Salvador Alvarado, Governor 
ot Yucatan, 3Icx., to organize the distribution o£ land to the Indians of that State. 



and the imperative need to 

n opportunity to the masses to 

te themselves and to rid them 

natism. These are great ideals 

have risen above the ocean of 

spilled, which has served to 

r them and to crystalize them 

tangible facts in the several 

; of the Republic where peace is 

Jy cemented. This is especially 

of the State of Yucatdn, where 

1^1 Alvarado has had, for a period 

,fcing more than two years, the 



are so desirous, can easily and method- 
ically go towards the bounties of 
nature. At the same time, the Rural 
Credit is being organized, a step abso- 
lutely necessary in order to redeem the 
field laborer from the power of usury. 
Formerly, the owners of lands in the 
State of Yucat&n did not pay any 
taxes, or if they. paid any, it was an 
irrisory sum: the total collected 
throughout the State amounted to 
SnO.OOO — on urban and rural property. 
The whole properties were appraised 



most all the States. The earnest wi^h 
of Constitutionalism is to place the 
Republic on a new basis, so that the 
expanses of the government fall on the 
rich and not on the destitute; and the 
efforts made towards this end will 
soon show results of immense social 
transcendence, for that people, sunk 
until a short time ago, in the darkest 
feudalism, will raise its head and bless 
for ever the memory of the heroes fal- 
len in the struggle. 



^ 







Does Mexico Interest You? 

Then you should read the following pamphlets: 

What the Catholic Church Has Done for Mexico, by Doctor, 

Paganel ( «« ^« 

The Agrarian Law of Yucatan ( ^\J.xv 

The Labor Law of Yucatan 

International Labor Forum 

Intervene in Mexico, Not to Make, but to End War, urges I « - ^ 

Mr. Hearst, with reply by Holland ) 

The President's Mexican Policy, by F. K. Lane '^ 

The Religious Question in Mexico j 

A Reconstructive Policy in Mexico > 0.10 

Manifest Destiny ; 

What of Mexico ) 

Speech of General Alvarado > 0.10 

Many Mexican Problems ) 

Charges Against the Diaz Admirtistration ". ^ 

Carranza V 0.10 

Stupenduous Issues ) 

Minister of the Catholic Cult ) 

Star of Hope for Mexico > 0.10 

Land Question in Mexico ; 

Open Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago, 111. ) 

How We Robbed Mexico in 1848, by Robert H. Howe > 0.10 

What the Mexican Conference Really Means ; 

The Economic Future of Mexico 

We also mail any of the^ pamphlets upon receipt of 5c each. 

Address all communications to 

LATIN-AMERICAN NEWS ASSOCIATION 
1400 Broadway, New York City 



